PLEASE NOTE: THIS IS A WORK IN
PROGRESS. Some of the statements below may not be agreeable to your own personal
philosophy (what......?). I will be building and changing each section
repeatedly over the next month or so. This is conceptual work and with the
limited time that I have to work on it, it may appear disjointed and probably
confused (yes...it is!) My first objective it to get the main concepts
down and then build on them. So, patience please.

Zone and tactical theory is based on the concept that within the
game of hockey exists many specific zones that have specific
characteristics inherent the location. This may be relative to skill,
combativeness, endurance, speed, etc. As in the "Art of War" by Sun
Tzu, this concept was critical to the success of his troops in times of war.
Conceptually, terrain played in integral part of armed conflict. Characteristics
of hill-war fare were different than those of swamp war-fare, urban war-fare
different that those on an open field.

What I will do in this page is to form a correlation between
zone, tactics and skill. The following pages may be a little long winded but bear with me.

Zone size in some way is dependant on the skill level
of the individual and/or team. A Tyke or Novice player conceptually organizes
his game play based on his limited skills. Chip and bump in traffic and get to
open ice, skate hard until you run into something. A highly skilled
NHL player can alter his tactics meter to meter down the ice.

There are then two basic schools of thought. One tactically
based on zone and its inherent characteristics relative to team play and the
other is based on individual skills (one on ones).

To start, we will analyze zone specific characteristics.

As shown below, the surface can be broken up into different
zones. While some of these zones can be "similar" such as corners (4
of them), there are characteristics that are slightly different. Two zones are
offensive and 2 are defensive, one side is to the goal-tenders blocker side, one
to the glove, and so on. The objective here is to describe each zone with its
inherent attributes and build strategies that identify strengths and weaknesses
either in team tactics or player skills.

The following flow chart represents how zone characteristics
effect skill and tactical training and systems.

In the following pages, I will progress through each zone as
shown in the above flow chart and when, all is said and done, move into drill
and system practice plans once the animated program that I am working on becomes
a little more familiar. Good luck understanding all of this. Please email me
some feed back. RON

characteristics: Into or
out of using the side wall lane, into or out of using low back lane or
into or out of through mid ice.

2 - sealed off on
two sides

Side characteristics: Tall or
short end glass, tall or short side glass, high or low mid boards, lively or
dead mid boards, inset or flush dasher board setup, yield or unyielding glass
system, coarse or groomed edges, shallow or deep corner, strong or weak base
board rebounds, line visibility (yes, believe it or not) and ice conditions.

Average skill
required for success but must be able to increase speed once open to
drive to net.

Skating - Long
game skills (60 - 100 ft)

1

1

Not a major
requirement

Puck handling

10

10

Most skill
required for success especially when accelerating, performing crossovers
and tight turns. Must be able to protect puck while accelerating into
open ice.

Stick handling

10

10

Most skill
required for success. Quick hands, strong stance a must.

Intelligence.

8

9

Get open, get to the net is
basic requirement of offense. Defensive posture is primarily focused on
awareness of time and pressure which translates into low, medium and
high risk options. To coin a phrase by Dave King, low risk/high reward
options are critical to a team's success.

Passing

5-10

10

Defensive zone
passing under high pressure ranks a 10. However, if partners screens off
or assists, variables can change. Offensive passing is a must and is
absolutely critical to goal opts.

Reception

7

9

Reception
skills on defense are rather basic and simple yet do require high
success rate. Offensive reception is critical to goal scoring especially
when catch and release for shooting skills.

Shooting

8

5

I ranked
defensive shooting important from a clearing perspective. Off the glass
and out with power and accuracy becomes a problem under high pressure.
Offensive shooting skills from this zone are minimal but a quick,
accurate well timed shot could score.

Combative

10

10

Most combative
place in the rink. Critical to a teams success. Control the corners,
control the game.

Endurance

10

10

Anaerobic -
very intense. Strong on skates with much upper body work through core,
arms, shoulder.

a - anticipation
(reading off of combative situation - turnover and transition to off/def)

b - reactive
(getting into position as fast as possible off of read)

c - concentration

d - awareness

e - communication:
verbally, body language

f - listening

g - discipline

Success within this zone
defensively (while static or in motion) require the following: Strong
skating skills such as quick starts, stops, turns, and bursts of speed either in
a straight line or on a curve. Strong combative skills require strength,
quickness, deceptiveness through use of arms, body and stick. Strong
communication skills (talking and listening) as well as a comprehensive
understanding of the tactical applications based on one on one (offensive side,
defensive side) skills such as man-on-man responsibilities (coverage, getting
open, etc) and two on ones based on support (aggressive/near-close and
passive/close-far).

Average
offensive skill
required for success but must be able to increase speed once open to drive
to net. Defensive skill is important to react to rebound, etc.

Skating - Long
game skills (60-100ft)

5

10

Not a major
requirement except for some breakout attempts and attacking lane off of an
outside drive.

Puck handling

9

9

Second most
important skill required for success especially when accelerating,
performing crossovers and tight turns. Must be able to protect puck while
accelerating into open ice or to the net

Stick handling

10

10

Most skill
required for success. Quick hands, strong stance a must.

Intelligence.

8

10

Get open, get to the net is
basic requirement of offense

Passing

5-10

10

Defensive zone
passing under high pressure ranks a 10. However, if partners screens off
or assists, variables can change. Offensive passing is a must and is
absolutely critical to goal opts.

Reception

7

10

Reception skills
on defense are rather basic and simple yet do require high success rate
such as on a reverse, over, over and back, etc. Offensive reception is critical to goal scoring especially when catch and
release for shooting skills (one-time shots)

Shooting

8

10

I ranked
defensive shooting important from a clearing perspective. Off the glass
and out with power and accuracy becomes a problem under high pressure.
Offensive shooting skills from this zone are minimal but a quick, accurate
well timed shot could score.

Combative

8

8

Most combative
place in the rink. Critical to a teams success. Control the slot,
control the game. Net drives, crash the net, go to the net are terms
depicting play in this area.

Endurance

6

6

Anaerobic - very
intense. Strong on skates with much upper body work through core, arms,
shoulders.

a - anticipation
(reading off of combative situation - turnover and transition to off/def)

b - reactive
(getting into position as fast as possible off of read)

c - concentration

d - awareness

e - communication:
verbally, body language

f - listening

g - discipline

h - quick
release shooting skills

Success within this zone
defensively (while static or in motion) require the following: Strong
skating skills such as quick starts, stops, turns, and bursts of speed either in
a straight line or on a curve under extreme pressure due to nature of zone
(closest to net and scoring opportunity). Strong combative skills require strength,
quickness, deceptiveness through use of arms, body and stick behind the net and
in the slot. Strong
communication skills (talking and listening) as well as a comprehensive
understanding of the tactical applications based on one on one (offensive side,
defensive side) skills such as man-on-man responsibilities (coverage, getting
open, etc) and two on ones based on support (aggressive/near-close and
passive/close-far).

I
will endeavor to break down both zones comprehensively moving through each of
the above tactics, basing the decision making process down into a binary
progression. This binary set of progressions is based on puck location, puck
direction, player position (offensive/defensive), relative position of checking
player/s (speed, distance), etc. I will be animating this process on my other
web site (www.hockeyschoolonline.ca) at a later time, within a month or
so.....hopefully so as to better understand this process so please bear with
me.

A
player's default system is based on pattern recognition. If a player repeats a
specific movement enough times, his ability to recognize this pattern and
possible outcomes becomes somewhat intuitive. Once a play develops outside this
pattern however, everything mentally slows down to as to better read options. A
comparison to this is similiar to the car radio scenario. In a familiar neighborhood,
we can have many distractions (car radio on, talking, etc) and navigate very
easily the turns, breaking, accelerating, etc. However, in unfamiliar territory,
to many distractions become a problem and we either slow down or turn
everything off so as to navigate easier (take in more information). We can say
the same thing when driving on country roads and then driving in a busy city
where it takes far more concentration to negotiate turns, stops, etc. This is
what happens when a player jumps to a higher level to soon, the "country to
city" transition becomes overwhelming and the decision making process slows
down significantly.

An
interesting phenomena occurs if we continue to drive in dense city traffic. We
start to sequence events and start to recognize certain patterns; when to
anticipate light changes, lane changes, other driver movements, movements of pedestrians,
location of street signs, etc. We then start to create and utilize an "operational
system of city drivers and pedestrians".
We start to group drivers into basic categories; slow, normal and radical (or
idiots...kidding). As well, we start to learn how much time we have to make
decisions to turn, stop, etc based on signage, lights, or other drivers. In
essence we create a survival default system that allows us to operate safely in
a very busy, hectic environment. Not much different than hockey right.
Unfortunately, the drivers (skaters), signage (events), are hard to categorize
because most of our training has been subjective (based on what a particular
coach thinks) not objective (what is actually happening within the
REAL game). For example, a common mistake is during breakout practice where a
coach teaches a low pressure breakout pattern and then the players introduce it
into a game with no success. What happens is that a basic pattern (this
particular breakout) is just a foundation of movement from which options arise
based on pressure. If we only create on outcome, the forecheck has to fall
within this pattern or there is very little chance of success.

The
following diagrams are designed to create basic default pattern
systems from which a player either expands on a 1/1 situation into a variety of
2 on one options. This can become very complicated (I have written a book on
this that covers approximately 450 pages and 850 diagrams on just breakout
variables alone) and I will endeavor to simplify this as much as possible. GOOD
LUCK!!!

In the
diagram below, I have shown both corner and net zones. I will break down these
zones specific to puck movement so as to build a binary system that we can
utilize.

In this
first series of Offensive plays, the objective is to make the goaltender handle
the puck. Tactically, benefits are many. (a) Dump and Freeze: face-off
superiority and options that result. (b) Handle and Play: options that may
result off of a bad puck handle or pass. (c) Net Stop: Options that may result
off of miss-handle, poor setup, poor communication with defense.

I will
not go into detail here about :dump and freeze" or "dump and
play" options, but suffice it to say that, how many goals have we seen over
the years in the NHL been the result of a miss-handle or miss-pass. Remember a
few? The primary objective of a dump-in is to CREATE an opportunity
by application of pressure through either; angle of dump, type (flip, slap
etc.) speed or location.

In the
following diagram, the dump-in is from the seam with the objective to create a
shallow to deep rebound (left side drawing) or to use the wall / corner to
rebound the puck inside out. This type of play creates blind-side defenseman
pivots if the puck is dumped from an inside position (between two def.).
Problems with pivots, screen outs, and puck retreval are again the main
objectives of inside out wall dump play.

The
object of the following plays (strong side) as shown below are to bring the puck
back to the seam forcing perhaps a bad pivot, retreval, or support play. In the
Cross-corner play, the objectives are to either; force a bad pivot and/or
retreval or, puck pick-up by support player.

characteristics: Into or
out of using the side wall lane, and/or into or out of using mid ice.

2 - sealed off on
one side

Side characteristics: Tall or
short end glass, tall or short side glass, high or low mid boards, lively or
dead mid boards, inset or flush dasher board setup, yield or unyielding glass
system, coarse or groomed edges..

Defensively
more important on breakout fundamentals. Crossovers off of cycle.

Skating - Long
game skills (60-100ft)

4

8

Not a major
requirement except for breakout attempts and attacking lane off of an
outside drive.

Puck handling

5

7

Second most
important skill required for success especially when accelerating,
performing crossovers and tight turns. Must be able to protect puck while
accelerating into open ice or to the net on cycle or when carrying puck
into open ice off of breakout.

Stick handling

5

5

Average
skill. Most one on ones in this zone pertain to delay options and puck
protection off of cycle.

Intelligence

6

8

Get
open for breakout pass, understand options off of breakout, read offensive
options to outside either from zone entry and top of circle penetration to
corner exit and drive off of cycle.

Passing

5-10

8

Passing from
this zone defensively to mid ice, near side bank, weak long
pass.

Reception

8-10

8

Reception skills
on defense are rather basic and simple yet do require high success rate.
Offensive reception is critical to goal scoring especially when catch and
release for shooting skills.

Shooting

8

10

I ranked
defensive shooting important from a clearing perspective. One of the
problems in this area is trying to clear or pick up the puck on a rim
play. Chipping the puck through the middle or off the glass or wall is a
difficult skill especially when under high pressure. Offensive shooting skills from this zone
come from either a quick shot off the cycle, pass from down low, an over
pass (such as on a power play) to a quick shot (slap, snap or wrist) from
the rush.

Combative

8

6

Combative
action comes from a pinching defenseman and more or less is limited to
getting the puck out of the zone.

Endurance

4

6

Defensive
play is minimal. Offensive play is moderate especially when cycling.